2021 Sketch Dump

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This is the starter for 2021?? Well! This was a joke about overblown shape language in character design, which isn't to say that shape language in itself is incorrect (because it's not), but that it's awful what happens when you give that knowledge to maladroit butchers with no sense of 'beauty', 'love', 'moderation', or 'subtlety'. You get horrible 2D trapezoid goblins like this. As a one-off it's quirky enough to be 'interesting', but if this was Camellia's actual design that I had to stare at constantly or write stories about even semi-sincerely I would puke.

So, getting away from that, here's a nice little Aquila. The 'theme' for 2021 is continuing on from 2020, leaning back in to shape-focused swooshy stylization while trying to be more conscious of anatomy.

Another cute Aquila, fiddling with his hair. Aquila has a tic where he fusses with his hair when he's feeling strong negative emotions about something, but is suppressing it in front of others. He is surprisingly bad at concealing this habit, but people don't know he has it anyway because it's rare for him to feel strongly in the first place. I'm not sure that's what's happening here, he could just be fixing his bangs, since he is also a bit vain and fussy about looking well-groomed.
2021 was also the year that I was writing Raum's narrative, so there's a higher than average incidence of Raums and Aquilas up to July, when I finished it.

Little Miquir and Arsene hugs.

Another variation of the smoopy Camellia and Arsene theme. I like this one a lot for their expressions.

Aster in the Homestuck Maid god tier outfit. I've commented about Homestuck's influence elsewhere, but her classpect would be Maid of Blood.

Aquila, looking very keikaku doori. I like the atmosphere of this a lot.

A calmer, more composed Aquila looking casually elegant.

Trivia lounging.

Cute quick Phoenix. Something's bothering him. Who!? What!?

Aster. I don't know what you call this expression, but I like the atmosphere of it a lot.

A couple swooshy Trivias.

A rather cute IRL Poppy. Anyone can be cute through the anime filter... not that I think Poppy was ever especially ugly, in terms of bodily or facial structure, but she certainly wasn't a bombshell (like others around her were) and the acne was pretty bad.

The quintessential Raum.

A character design test of facial structure in profile. Zach's turn for this one, and he looks very nice. I like his attitude.

Mephi profile face structure. Awful.

Camellia in profile. Man, he's really cute.

Me getting drunk on the 'look! shapes! SHAPES!! am I a character designer yet!?' juice with Raum. I did like the bold flat top to his hair, though, so that started to stick around.

Cute Phoenix, sill on the zany shape juice but a little more sane about it.

Reyl's turn for the shape juice, though this was less a shape juice and more a return to my baseline 'drew too much Invader Zim in middle school' juice.

Demented Mephi posing for when he's a hair from losing it to the hunger.

Cute Raum. Thinking about how to stylize him nicely and what his proportions are like. Minus the big head but in GoH everyone gets a big head.

Some Camellia and Arsene smoop. Behold! A snake. Camellia feels a little too tame here but I enjoy the Arsenes.

Aster heavy stylization. It's fun to let the pen just sweep swoop around like this, and the result is pretty cute too.

Trivia test. Yeah, the cute cartoon face on the erotic anime body isn't working that well, but gee do erotic anime bodies force you to think about perspective and anatomy. (Not even joking).

Raum stylization sketch. Goes a little 'too much', but still fun.

Aquila and Raum, one of the fruits of having them on my mind for Raum's narrative. I like Aquila's atmosphere here and the juxtaposition of their attitudes, Raum being sweet and Aquila being Aquila. Mostly though I was laughing at the dynamic of Aquila plainly having more authority but Raum being almost a full half foot taller.

Aquila getting fed up with his psycho plans misfiring and kneejerking to the conclusion that the answer is even more, and even more psycho psycho plans.

Raum has reined down Aquila's psycho plans into perfectly serviceable, happy plans, and Aquila is a little bummed about it but okay to behave because Raum is right.

An awkwardly posed Mephi who is even more demented and even closer to losing it because he's gone 3 weeks without eating. It's a miracle he's still able to control himself at all by this point honestly.

Reyl, why is your head so big? I still like this though. Stylization test.

Mephi go graawr. But only half-heartedly.

Raum's outfit changes several times though his narrative, but he notably gets a new wardrobe at about halfway through. This was the result of wondering what that new outfit might look like.

SUPER CURSE PART 1: Mephi in a maid outfit.

SUPER CURSE PART 2: The worst part of this is that he doesn't even look awful. Part of that is my style being flowy with a feminine comfort zone anyway, but Mephi's normal design having a 'skirt' makes it not even that weird on him.

SUPER CURSE PART 3: The most wretched part is that he doesn't even react because it's not like this is an indignity worse than anything else he's faced. Mephi is freed and this curse is concluded.

Phoenix blowing a big bubble.

Anti-Curse: A very nice, boldly atmospheric Aquila.

Stylization test with Raum and Phoenix. Raum is holding the Feen.

Swooshy Swift swoop around.

Very swooshy Aquila looking rich and devious, which he is.

Cute little Camille.

Cute Swift.

Cute little Phoenix, still playing with style.

Verti with a knife??? There is zero circumstance he would ever need a knife for anything but I really like how his face and this pose turned out, and that hand needed... something.

Cute little Zach.

Design ideas for Raum's current body. I liked this pass a lot and eventually solidified it. I don't know her name yet, 'her' being the body's original owner, but I imagine she's a cultist of Raum who volunteered for him to possess her in exchange for some kind of knowledge. I'm not sure how much Raum enjoys deals like these, but if he's picking a permanent body, the 'pool' of candidates he won't feel horrible about is pretty low, limited to death row inmates and active suicides.

More ideas for Raum's current body.

Design Ideas for Lisbet's space outfit. I haven't solidified this, but I do like the twintails.

More Raum's current body ideas.

Another Raum's current body test—I like this design a lot. It's heavily in my comfort zone with an overall fashionable vibe I think is neat that is hard to incorporate into other characters.

Just a Camille. Hello Camille. You're pretty fashionable too but in a horrible eyebleeding pajama way.

A nice Lisbet, in a Homestuck Thief god tier outfit. As mentioned elsewhere, Lisbet's classpect would be Thief of Breath.

GET IN LOSER WE'RE GOING SHOPPING

A nice Camellia. Here I was starting to get very comfortable with where all these stylization tests were heading, and liked them a lot.

Cute little Arsene headshot.

Cute little Phoenix, unsettled but unable to pinpoint about what.

Raum's current body swooshing.

Cute Lisbet swooshing.

Dynamic stylized Reyl. It's an interesting pose, but I also have no idea what it is.

Dynamic stylized Zachary. This is also interesting and cute, but I also have no idea what it's supposed to be.

Thing: Thing, Terra:

A swooshy Camellia. I needed new references of everyone for Art Fight, and though I enjoyed this, it didn't feel servicable.

A highly alarmed Camellia.

A VERY CUTE ZACHARY... the quiet advent of what would become my default sketching style for the next year.

A somewhat 'too much' stylized Raum to celebrate finishing his narrative.

A little more grounded but still stylized Raum whose hair I wound up liking a lot.

It's not even a bagel. It's a croissant.

Cute swooshy Phoenix. Very good atmosphere here.

Zachary praying and Pontifex outfit test.

More Zachary praying.

A bit of a 'too much' stylized Reyl.

Mephi curled up licking his hand.

GRAAWR! Mephi.

Mephi with some Mephi form ideas. He probably likes veils and things like that to hide his face.

Cute Mephi and Trivia doodle.

Renard and Mephi. It took 5 years but I was finally starting to care about Renard, and had some interesting ideas for his dynamic with Mephi.

Cute Zachary in Pontifex outfit.

Raum skipped shoulder day.

Random Mephi form test. Mephi is fun to mindlessly doodle, because I can go wild with his design.

More Mephi. This time I'm playing with dynamic poses, and discovering I enjoy this small fixed-size binary tool.

Various Swifts, all quite cute, and an explanation of his weird boots.

Very cute Zach chibi. One nice think about this pen is that it forces me to be very decisive with my lines.

Kind of a silly dynamic perspective Mephi.

Dynamic perspective Verti. This one I like a lot.

The downside of this sketching brush is that it can get illegible if you're not me, but trust me there is an extremely cute Arsene under here.

Space suit Lisbet design test. I'm still not satisfied, but it's some more ideas.

Current Raum doodles where my pen pressure broke.

A nice Lisbet—her expression is a little too smug, but this was my first time really focusing on filling up the whole canvas space, which I found had good results.

Various Mephis.

Cute Zach and Arsene.

Cute quick Arsene.

A cute Trivia, again incorporating more of the canvas space than I usually use.

Baby Camellia is surprised and bashful.

Baby Raum and Reyl.

Swooshy Dynamic Camellia.

Baby Verti and Baby Camellia. Not canon since Verti is several hundred years older than Camellia, but it's cute to imagine a time where Camellia could have been openly, innocently admiring of Verti without politics complicating things. (He still is openly, innocently admiring of Verti but there are politics complicating things).

A spicy Camellia. A Camellia with some attitude.

More random Mephi ideas.

There was a lot of 'ears and tail' Mephi around this point. It's kind of like his subconscious forcing him to emote when it is important for him to acknowledge he's feeling a thing but he doesn't want others to make too big a deal of it.

More Mephi.

Cute Arsene. One nice thing about using all the canvas space is that it forces me into more dynamic or interesting poses, otherwise the character's limbs won't fit in the box, that double as composition.

Another cute Arsene. He looks a bit sneaky.

Another random Mephi.

Very rough Ren and Mephi sparring ideas. I imagine that one way Renard 'warms up' his new wielders, or forces them to start thinking seriously about what they're doing in combat, is to throw them against Mephi. I don't think Mephi would enjoy being used like that (that is, for the benefit of strangers, because he actually enjoys going seriously against Renard himself) but it is a humbling experience for Renard's wielders that Mephi (or any witch/ghoul with a suitably wicked powerset) can crush them without even bothering, and forces them to be a little more trusting of Renard. If they ever do get the point that they don't need Renard babying them to match against Mephi, though, he does start genuinely liking and acknowledging wielders.

Cute Arsene, mystified.

Hoo! Hah! Kung Fu Phoenix?! No Phoenix stop you are tiny with twig arms and no athletic ability if you fight you'll get punched in the face.

Yes that's better. A cute little Phoenix to close off 2021.